Management at Pfaudler Balfour have announced 80 redundancies at the company’s Leven plant, The Courier understands.
The company, which manufactures equipment for chemical firms and also has a plant in the German town of Schwetzingen, recently revealed it was reviewing its operations in Europe.
In a letter to workers earlier this month, it confirmed work on specialised glass-lined containers would be transferred to Germany.
The GMB trade union had warned at the start of February that Fife jobs could be lost to Germany.
At the time Gary Smith, GMB Scotland secretary, called for the Scottish Government to intervene, saying Britain’s “lax employment laws” meant Fife workers would be cheaper to sack than their German colleagues.
However, the company rejected the union’s claims while maintaining there are no plans to close the Leven factory, despite the 128-strong workforce being severely depleted.
In the letter to staff, it said: “As you all know, the Pfaudler Group has been reviewing changes to its European manufacturing footprint in order to address the changing needs of the market and to maximise the efficiencies of scale and resources.
“This is necessary to justify the future capital investments required to maintain our position in providing the highest technology and quality products to our customers.
“The proposal being put forward is that new vessel work currently undertaken at Leven be transferred to Germany and therefore, with regret, this could lead to redundancies.”
Trade union representatives were to meet company bosses on Tuesday before the start of a 30-day consultation.
The company made no comment when contacted by The Courier.
Mr Smith said in February: “GMB Scotland has been informed that the company considers that its market supplying equipment to the pharmaceutical industry does not favour keeping two plants open.
“We have a real fear that the workers in Scotland will be fired because they’re cheaper and they have fewer redundancy rights.”